Improvement in leather-splitting and fleshing machines



N.PETERS. FHOTO-LITMOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON U C ident-d tatre aune anni.

i JOSEPH A. SArFoHD, or wINoHHSTnH, MASSACHUSETTS.

Letters Patent No. 98,888, dated .Janna-ry 18, 1870.

IMPROVEMENT IN LEATHER-SPLITTING- AND FLESIN'G MACHINES.

The Schedule referred to in these Letters Patent and making part nf the same.

"To all whom 'it 'may concern Be it known that I, JOSEPH A. SAFFORD, of Winchester, in the county of Middlesex, and State of Massachuset-ts, have invented certain new and useful 1mprovements in Machines forA Splitting and Fleshing Leather; and I do hereby declare the following to be a My invention relates, in the first place, to the man-l ner of hanging and adjusting the feed-rolls and consists, first, in the use, in combination with a device for simultaneously adjusting both ends ofthe .upper feed-roll, of a device for adjusting either end of said rollindependentlyrof the other, for the piupose of -levelling said roll, or bringing it parallel with the edge of the knife and the lower roll, as will be more fully described.

It consists, secondly,1n the nse, in combination with ayielding lower roll, supported upon springs, of setscrews, for regulating the tension of said4 springs, adjustable holding-down rods, for controlling the position of said roll, and wedges placed beneaththe nuts through which saidl set-screws work, said wedges being operated by a right and left-hand screw, so that both may -be moved simultaneously, and thereby raise or lower said yielding roll, without affecting the tension of the springs inthe least, while, at the same time, the tension of either spring may be adjusted independently of the other, and, by means of the holding-down rods, the position of the said roll may be controlled at will,` the object of this arrangement being to provide a ready j means of changing the relation of the yielding roll to the knife, as may be desired, toadapt the machine to the two operations of splitting or tleshing skins.

In the drawings- A represents the side-frames of the machine, connected together by the girts A'.-

B is the upper feed-roll,- havin g bearings in the boxes a a, suspended by the rods b b, the upper ends of which are provided with screw-collars, c c, which rest upon springs, d d, enclosed in the cases or' cylinders e e, forming apart of the caps ff, of the frame.

B is a spur-gear, mounted on the shaft of the feedroll B, through which power is communicated to it fromthe driving-shaft G.

C is an adjusting-shafaprovided with a hand-wheel, g, and mounted in bearings in thevcaps ff, and has, also, a screw-thread cut on a portion of its length, 'at

either end, the screw ou one end being right-hand, and the otl1er,lefthand.

h hare two wedges or inclined planes, placed beneath the caps ff, and resting on the bed wedges i t', with their thick ends toward each other, and an ear pro'- jecting upward from the inner end of each, having a serew-thread provided to fit thescrew O, which passes through them, by means of which they are forced out or in, and thereby simultaneously move both'euds of the upper roll.

t' t are two bed-wedges, placed between the wedges l1. h and theboxes a a, and attached to the boxes a a,

by means of the' adjusting-screws t" i', by means of.

which they may be moved ont or in-slightly, for the purpose of levelling the upper roll, and bringing it into a position parallel to the edge o fthe knife and the lower roll. Y

Instead ofthe adj usting-screw shaft O and the wedges h h and t' i, for adjusting the upper-roll, the cam-shaft D and cams kh, representedv in rigs. 3 and 4, may be used, the said cams bearing on the top of the heads of the adjustable screws l @represented in iig. 2, the said screws serving the same purpose, in connection with the cams k k, that the wedgest t' do in connection with the wedges h h and screw-shaft C.

E is Vthe lower or yielding roll, mounted in boxes an lm, fitted in the slot A2,- in the frame, and having a spurgear, F, mounted upon one end of its shaft, through which power is communicated to said roll from the driving-shaft G.

The boxes m m rest upon the top of spiral springs, nu, the lower'ends of which rest upon the collars o o, attached to the upper ends of the adjusting-screws p p, which, working in the nuts r fr, serve the purpose of regulating the springs n n, each independently of the'other.

The screws p p are provided with, check-nuts, p p.

s s are adjusting-screws, passing through the centre of the' screws p p, (which. serve as nuts for the same,) and connected to the boxes m m, by means of Vheads at their upper ends, in such a manner as to limit the height to which the springs n n can raise the roll E,

' while they present no obstacle to the free movement of said roll in a downward direction, when the work is introduced between the rolls, and, at the same time, the position of said roll may be adj usted by means of 'said` screws s s, so as to be parallel to the edge of the kni e.

- t t are plates fitted'into the bottoms of the slots A,

in the frame, to form a bearing-surface forthe wedges or inclined planes u u to rest upon. These'plates may left-hand screw-threads, by means of which the wedges?V u u may be simultaneously moved out or in, and acting upon the nut-plates fr fr, itted to slide in the slots A2in the frame, cause the yielding lower roll E to be .raised or lowered, to adj ust the machine for splitting or fleshingthe skins, as may be desired, wit-hout changing the tension of the springs.

J and K are safety-guard bars, placed in front of the feed-rolls, to. prevent injury to the operator from accidentally getting his hands caught in the rolls.

L is t-he splitting-knife, attached, by screw-bolts, to the bed-girt M, the holes through the knife being slotted so as to allow the knife to be adjusted to o from the' feedrolls.

The knife is made somewhat thicker at the point where the bevel of the front edge terminates than the' rear portion of the plate, where the bolts are inserted,

is, so as to form a raised rib immediately in front of the bolt-heads, for the purpose of guiding the leather over said bolt-heads without danger of its catching against them.

The operation of my improved machine is as follows:

The bed-wedges t' t are moved, by means ofthe adjusting-screws tf'i, until the upper roll is in a position parallel to the edge of the knife, when the screw-shaft C is revolved by the hand-wheel g, to move the wedges h 71y out or in, as the case may require, until the roll is the requisite distancevfrom the knife. The lower roll E is now adjusted to a position paralled to the edge of the knife, by means ofthe adjustable holding'- down rods s s, and the' tension ofthe springs n u are regulated by means of the set-screws p p, working in the nuts lr 'r, resting on the top ofthe wedges u u.

The lower roll is lnow moved up or down, to give the. required distance between the rolls, by revolving the screw-shaft H, so as to force the wedges u' u in or out, as the case may require.

The machine is now set in motion, and the skin to be .split introduced between the rolls, and. passing through the rolls, is split bythe knife, that portion that is of eventhiokness passing above the knife, and the uneven part beneath the knife.

If, now, it is desirable to llesh that portion of the lskin that has just passed beneath the knife, in order *to better adapt it to various uses to which it may be applied, all that 'it is necessary to do is to lower the upper roll, by revolving the screw-shaft C, in such a manner as to force the wedges h h in, until the upper roll nearly touches the knife, and also lower the lower roll, by revolving the screw-shaft H, so as to draw out the wedges u u, until the rolls are the proper distance apart, when the machine is ready for operation again., the tension of the springs n n remaining precisely the same as in the previous operation.

'lhat part of the skin that previously passed beneath the knife, is 'now turned over, and introduced between the rolls, with the iesh-side up, when a thin skiver ities, and leaving the thicker portion, which passes under the knife, with asmooth surface, (but it may be of a varying thickness,) which may be made up into stilenings, and for various other uses.

Having thus fully described the construction and operation of my improved machine, What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

1. The screw-shaft C and the wedges h h, by means of which both ends of the roll B may be adjusted simultaneouslygin combination with the bed-wedgest i and the adjusting-'screws iz", by means of which either end of said roll may be slightly adj usted independently of the other, substantially as described.

2. The cam-shaft D and cams K K, for adjusting both ends ofthe roll B simultaneously, in combination with the adjusting-screws l l, for adjusting either end of said roll independently of the other, substantially as described.

13. The combination of the adjusting-screws p p, for regulating the tension of the springs n n, and adj ustable holding-down rods s s, and the screw-shaft H and wedges' @t u, by means of which the lower roll may be moved up or'down, Without changing the tension of the springs, substantially as described.

Executed at Boston, this 18th day of August, 1869.

' J. A. SAFFORD.

Witnesses: l

N. O. LOMBARD, G. E. WHITNEY.

will be cut from the esh-side, removing all irregular-v 

